This Blog is about the Seattle Thunderbirds Hockey Team, the Western Hockey League and hockey in general. The opinions expressed are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinion of the Seattle Thunderbirds or their management, or the Western Hockey League or their management.

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The Team

Tyler Hunnex - I started/founded/began Let's Go Birds in September of 2007 after feeling like my favorite Junior Hockey team needed more discussion and analysis. I'm statistically minded, forever frustrated by the Tbirds and my all-time favorite player was #10. I think I'm funny and my writing would probably disagree. Follow me on Twitter @TylerHunnex.

Jon Whiting - Jon joined the Let's Go Birds team in the summer of 2013. His passion for the Thunderbirds is as big as any fan I've ever met. His two kids are named after former Tbirds and his favorite all-time players were Patrick Marleau and Olaf "Ole" Kjenstad, who he swears is the best pure scoring Tbird ever.

Kolesar may have had a bad camp, I don't know cause I wasn't there but this kid has the pedigree to be something special in the whl for a long long time. I wouldn't give up on him yet. There are many reasons for a guy to have an off couple of days, the most common of which is illness. I can remember getting sick at Washington state select camps as a young lad myself. No fun.Also, I hope you aren't suggesting Pederson is a better player than Barzal when you say he's the best of the young forwards cause I doubt there are many scouts that would agree with you on that.

Before I head off to watch the morning session, here are my thoughts on some players from session 1.

Team BlueI'll start with them since they were first out.

Barzal - He really sucked this game. First time I have been disappointed with his play. I know he was only in on the first 5 goals for the team, but at this rate, I might start calling him a 1st round bust.Hickman - Bigger, taller, great shot, and played with BarzalLipsberg - See HickmanKreklewich - I was impressed with him both games, and is growing on meElder - has a very good shotWeber - Haven't noticed him much during all the scrimmages, other then his name is not Shea Weber. But today, played very well, and had a great breakaway moveWardley - Looks bigger. I have heard he came into camp in amazing shape. And he is on a role. With a slapshot like he scored on in the game today, I look for him to man the point on the PP. Anything less then 213 PP goals this season will be a huge disappointment for me. Ok, maybe there is some sarcasm thereWolf - looks like he took skating lessons over the summer. And put on some weight. Still tall. I thought he played well in both games.Lamothe - Took a couple hard checks very well, and ended up with the advantage despite being checkedOsterman - I have not seen many comments on this kid, but you can ask Tyler what I texted him during the first scrimmage on day one of camp. I am very impressed with Luke (plus we need one to replace Lockhart). He rushes the puck well, gets back when he does rush it. Is patient with the puck and does not make a panicked move. Only issue I see is that he appear afraid to take the man in front of the net physically. But that can come from being from Minnesota where you don't really do that. He had two HUGE checks on the boards (one a hip check that is never done). Both times, the guy that took the hit wanted a piece of him. I personally think he makes the team as a 16 defender. He is doing everything he can to make it very difficult to say no.Fordyce - I have only seen him play 30 minutes now, so I am not going to give an opinion (I need Tyler the goalie to see him). But what really impressed me most about him was the fact he TALKED on the ice to everyone. Telling his defenders what was happening, and where to go.

Team WhiteTheir next, well, because they played team blue in the first game

Honey - Didn't see a lot out of him like I expected the vet to show. Wasnt the greatest, but also wasnt the worst.Kolsar - A lot of people both on this blog and off have talked to me about how bad this kid is. I just couldn't disagree more. Is he having the best camp in the world, that depends on what you expect out of him. To me, he is a power forward (aka Milan Lucic, can anyone tell me where he played his 16 year old season?) The move he put on Hauf for the tie in the second scrimmage was such a nice inside outside move, then he drive to the net. Same thing on a couple others ones. That is what he is going to do.Volcan - Didn't really notice the Volcano like I did during rookie scrimmage. Don't worry, happens to a lot of kids.Easnor - Continue to be impressed with him. Very strong on his skates, and a very nice shot.Holub - Got injured in the second scrimmage (heard it was a Carter Folk knee cheap shot), but came back despite the pain and played. Used his speed well, but just never quite hit it off with Easnor and Volcan.Forsberg - Very solid like normal. But a note to Jesse. While skating out of the zone with the puck, and you hear Barzal coming up from behind you, do something other then look used when you get you back pocket picked and giving up the goal.Foulk - Great job standing up for his teammate (Holub, and I have heard Honey also), by going after Folk. To steal a line from someone next to me, it was a Folk festival. To steal another line, they were fighting over the spelling of the last name.Khaira - Didn't notice him as much as I did during scrimmagesDurdle - wrote down that he appears to really see the ice well and make the smart moveTheodore - Theo Theo Theo. Appears to have grown taller (looks like longer legs). Still can dangle the puck with the best of themMumaguh - Struggled in first game, but then again, when you are faced with Barzal from 10 feet out by himself, it can happen). I have heard from a couple other fans, that Danny is playing injured, but no idea if true or not.Flodell - I leave judging goaltending up to Tyler since he plays goal (and rather well, except of course when I am coming in to score on him ). But Flodell seemed to be very strong out there position wise.

Team GreyTheir last, well, because I hate the color grey. Its boring, or kind of how this team played today.

Delnov - Talk, Talk, talk. Was having fun with everyone out there, talking.Swenson - The funny leader on the ice. I really hope how he was playing today continues the rest of the season. I have been an open critic of his, and this is one where I will be glad to say I was wrong. Best thing he did in the second game was yell at Linemen Brooks. Not once, but twice.Folk - I like him. He seems to know his role. Get under peoples skin, and play tough. Everyone wanted to go after him, and Folke finally got him. Neither player really landed a lot. If it was that 10 point must system, the coin toss would have won the fight 10-9. But I do like what I see in him.Williamson - Fan favorite. Big fan favorite. Huge fan favorite. I have not seen the fans attach themselves to a player like this since, well, since, OK, I got nothing here (was hoping a good joke would come to me). Overall, I think he plays fun style, and works very hard at it. Come back and talk to me when he gains 50 pounds (might have to be 75). OK, that is little rough on the kid, he is playing better then that, and has some nice moves on the breakaway.Hauf - Other then being walked around (by what some are calling the biggest first round bust in the history of the WHL), I thought he played his usual style. Big, tall, sound defensive hockey.Douglas - Did he play at all in either game? That is a good thing, because that means he didn't stand out os a bad playerFabbro - I can see what the scouts saw in him (and fell in love with). Smooth, sees the ice. I didn't think he struggled, but also didn't stand out. Moments of magic, followed by moments of "Has he had a shift lately".Bear - Not much to say, I just love the nameMyles - had a good game in net

Barzal looked better in game 1 yesterday but then faded away in game 2 again.

Not saying Pederson is the better player. I am just saying Pederson is the best of the forwards at this camp.

Barzal good as well. Just not living up to the hype. That might be a good thing for us, have him stick around for the full 4 or 5 years.

Any way you try and spin Kolesar ... he is awful. Are you really pinning his whole camp on a toe drag of Hauf? Big deal. My grandmother can toe drag Hauf. Let him try that against Portland. Sorry, I am trying to like him, but he has no skill beyond a practiced move or two, does not see the ice at all and isn't quick enough to use his size at this level. He wouldn't be the first time a first rounder busted out this early, but I had higher hopes.

However, Pderson might make up for the wasted pick on Kolesar. He is for real.

Couple other notesCongratulations are in order for T-Bird scout and former coach Peter Anholt. His blue team won both it's games. That raises his career win total to 12,567,432 wins. But bonus points to anyone that can answer how many Memorial cup rings he has? Even more bonus points for how many WHL championship rings he has? And then I will give you one billion bonus points if you can answer how many more rings he has then I do.Troock - Talked to some people that are laughing that he is already hurt, blah, blah. The only thing I am going to say to that is look back on BING (my recommended and preferred search engine ) for when Troock's surgery was done, and how long the estimated the healing process to takeNon mentioned players - Just because I didn't mention a player is also a good thing. That means to me, they did nothing wrong also, and didn't stick out as "Look at me, I suck"Great crowd came out for this game. But not very vocal.Guess there was not any $2 beers.

Based on what I've seen. I would be willing to bet a lot of money that your 16's this year are;

1.) Barzal2.) Pederson3.) Bear4.) Possibly Flodell ... depending which direction we go with goalies5.) Ugh ... probably Kolesar. You have to give your 1st rounders a chance, and he definitely has the size to play. Might as well see what he can do

10:52 PM said "I hope you aren't suggesting Pederson is a better player than Barzal when you say he's the best of the young forwards cause I doubt there are many scouts that would agree with you on that."

It should be noted, the last time "the scouts" disagreed with me on a WHL prospect was back in 2010. His name was Alex Forsberg. They said he was a no miss lock and early NHL first rounder. I said he was good, but not great.

Kolesar is much more reminiscent of Klarc Wilson than he is Milan Lucic. He will give us 20 points a year and 100+ PIMS - provide some toughness. Nothing wrong with that either. Maybe not the roll you want for a 16 year old, but he'll be a fixture here by his 17th season and right through his 20th season.

I figured it out. The team has decided to keep Elliot so that he can mentor Kolesar on the finer points of "playing like a giant squirt"

c'mon, give him a chance.

By the way I like Klarc Wilson, so if Kolesar goes that way I am satisfied. A tough guy who puts up 20+ points would be great. Honestly though I see Kolesar developing beyond that. I think he scores 20 goals on a stellar 2nd line as an 18/19 year old. remember Sena Acolatse? that guy was a giant squirt for a while too, and he turned out pretty well.

I was thinking about possible first line combos. Everybody like the Lipsbergs-Delnov-Honey line, except that they can't win faceoffs. But what about this:Lipsbergs-Barzal-Swenson. What I see here is Swenson as the first forechecker, the guy who lays the hit. Barzal is the second guy there to win the battle for the loose puck, and Lippy is the high guy for the snipe.

Nice writeup Jon, very amusing. I heard from a very reliable source that Mumbaugh is hurt, I'm not sure if that affected his play a lot or not, or maybe it was just having Lipsbergs, Barzal, and Hickman right in front of him every time he looked up.

Jon, I tried to look up Troock's surgery, but I didn't see anything. I'm assuming that he was still recovering from surgery, if that what you were implying? I know the Q & A he said he was being careful with his shoulder.

I thought Kolesar looked pretty good this morning, but maybe I wasn't watching the right moments. He was displaying a nice shot, just looked better overall than he did yesterday. Maybe hockey is like some of the other sports where younger players are inconsistent. Maybe one of our friendly anon scouts can confirm or deny this for me.

Pederson has looked good in camp, but better than Barzal? Come on, are you expecting Barzal to score every shift?

I wouldn't break up the line of Lips-Barzal-Hickman. They seem to have pretty good chemistry in the scrimmages.

Seriously again with the goon talk :( Watch Slapshot and pay particular attention to the Hanson brothers then you might be able to figure out what a goon is.

Slapshot is a movie and the characters are one dimensional. In real life, Rliott is a goon.

No one expects Barzal to score every shift,but cconsidering the advantages he is being given and the hype surrounding him, is it too much to ask that he perform strongest in his own age group? So far this camp, that honor goes to Pederson and hard earned without the same advantages.

Barzal has been a close second. Let's justhope the entitlement culture ends at camp and the best players play when the puck drops for real.

I hear Troock is not playing because the team wants to give his shoulder as much time as possible before regular season starts. Troock is ready to play and been given full clearance by doctors but the team is right in not putting him in these games for no reason. He looks to be in great shape and I watched him when he was on the ice by himself and he looked awesome. Sure looks ready to me.